thisistheROCK

Have you ever wondered about the impact that your words have? Listen to hear about some of the ways our words hurt.

Have you ever thought about the power that your words have? Check out this message to see how and why your words matter.

Ever struggle with stopping your bad habits? Listen to learn how you can kick those habits to the curb!

How do you start good habits? Listen to Zeek give you some practical tips on how to start the year right with good habits!

It's the new year and with the new year comes new year resolutions. But we want to challenge you to make a new kind of resolution this year. Listen to see what 2020 should be all about!

The good news of Christmas is that Jesus came to be with us! But it doesn't end with Christmas! Listen to hear why God is with us always!

Have you ever had a time in your life when things were terrible? You felt like you were in the middle of a storm? Listen to hear how God gives us comfort in the storms of our lives.

Is God with us in the times of our life when we feel all alone? Listen to hear about how God is with us in the valleys of our lives.

Listen to hear about the awe that we can have when we recognize the greatness of God!

We've all said it OMG before and OMG is also said in the Bible. Listen to hear two of the ways that the Bible uses OMG and why that matters to you.

Listen to see how the last words of Jesus have a crazy impact on our lives today!

Jesus commands us to go! Our faith is supposed to be active. Tonight we look at one of the go commands that Jesus gives us and we learn how we can live like we're forgiven.

Jesus commands us to go! Our faith is supposed to be active. Tonight we look at one of the go commands that Jesus gives us and we learn how we can move towards people who are in need of the compassion of Jesus.

Who are the friends that you need in your circle? Check out tonight's message to find out!

What are the things that you won't let your friends do? Check out tonight's message from Rick to find out!

What is the foundation of any good friendship? Check out tonight's message from Rick to find out!

Are you a contagious Christian?

Are you a chameleon Christian?

Are you a cactus Christian?

We had a great week at Summer Camp last week. How do we keep the Summer Camp feeling going now that we're home? Check out the message to see what you can do to bring Summer Camp home!

One of our summer interns, Trey, continues our summer series, Triple Dog Dare, by looking at Jesus' dare to be secure in eternal things.

One of our summer interns, Zeek, continues our summer series, Triple Dog Dare, by looking at Jesus' dare to be honest.

Alanna continues our series, Triple Dog Dare, where we look at Jesus' dare to be worthy of trust.

One of our summer interns, Karissa, continues our series, Triple Dog Dare, by looking at Jesus' dare to be a good friend.

One of our summer interns, Josh, continues our series Triple Dog Dare by looking at Jesus' dare to be wise.

Rick continues our series Triple Dog Dare by looking at Jesus' dare to not worry.

Have you ever been dared to do something? If you have, you know that the most intense dare that you can be given is a triple dog dare. These are dares that you have to step up and do. Throughout the Bible, Jesus dares his followers to do different things. This summer we'll be looking at these dares and seeing how we can step up and complete these dares. We kick off our series tonight by looking at how Jesus dares us to die.

Tonight we welcome our new 6th-grade class to the ROCK and we talk all about why the ROCK is so important for our lives!

In this two-part series called “Over It,” we are talking about forgiveness. Tonight’s message is about putting Jesus at the center of the discussion when we talk about forgiveness. With Him in mind and our fallen world in the background, we understand our need to be forgiven and give forgiveness. We’ll talk about how Jesus wants to move us from darkness to light.

Questions. Our day is filled with them. Why aren’t you out of bed yet? Where is your homework? Do you want fries with that? Is that really how much data you used last month?! Did you take out the trash like I asked you to? Questions are a normal part of life, yet for someone reason, we look at questions about our faith as a bad thing. In our series, Ask Me A Question, we are answering students questions about Jesus, the Bible, Christianity, and faith!

Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that “He has planted eternity in the human heart.” Today we answer a question that is written on all of our hearts. The question is what is heaven and hell like? We will seek to understand eternity and what each of these very real places are like. We will see that our lives are temporary but our souls are eternal. We’ll end by looking at our two options for eternity… heaven or hell. We want students to understand that heaven is where they want to be!

Questions. Our day is filled with them. Why aren’t you out of bed yet? Where is your homework? Do you want fries with that? Is that really how much data you used last month?! Did you take out the trash like I asked you to? Questions are a normal part of life, yet for someone reason, we look at questions about our faith as a bad thing. In our series, Ask Me A Question, we are answering students questions about Jesus, the Bible, Christianity, and faith!

Today we answer one of the hardest questions, why does God allow suffering? While this answer doesn’t have any quick or easy responses, we will seek to help our students understand some of the basic facets of the argument. While we experience suffering in this life, God didn’t originally create our world with suffering. Instead, it came because of our sin. Thankfully God didn’t sit back and do nothing but He entered our suffering and promised to make everything right again!

Questions. Our day is filled with them. Why aren’t you out of bed yet? Where is your homework? Do you want fries with that? Is that really how much data you used last month?! Did you take out the trash like I asked you to? Questions are a normal part of life, yet for someone reason, we look at questions about our faith as a bad thing. In our series, Ask Me A Question, we are answering students questions about Jesus, the Bible, Christianity, and faith!

Tonight we kick off our series by answering the question, how do I grow in my faith? This was the most asked question by our students and I believe it shows that students want to know Jesus more. We are going to look at four ways that we encourage students to draw close to God. However, growth begins with a desire… It’s an attitude of our heart first and then moves to action. These actions are simple but powerful ways to grow in your faith.

We’ve all heard of a greatest hits album. It’s a compilation of the best songs from a band or artist. These albums are often best sellers in their own rights and popular among fans. When we read through the life of Jesus, there are certain events that should stand out to us. In this series, we’re going to look at these events as Jesus’ Greatest Hits because of what they mean to us as followers of Jesus.

Tonight we wrap up our series by looking the greatest hits of Jesus… the cross and resurrection. There are no greater events in the life of Jesus than these two. We will discuss the significance and importance behind these events to our lives and what we need to do as a result of these events. We want the students to understand that Jesus died and rose again not for fun but for us! He created his greatest hits for us to enjoy forever!

A greatest hits album is a compilation album of successful, previously released songs by a particular music artist or band. Over the next few weeks, we are going to go through the gospel of Luke and look at some of the greatest hits, or moments, from Jesus' life. Tonight we look at the importance and significance of Jesus washing His disciple's feet.

A greatest hits album is a compilation album of successful, previously released songs by a particular music artist or band. Over the next few weeks, we are going to go through the gospel of Luke and look at some of the greatest hits, or moments, from Jesus' life. We kick off our series with looking at Jesus' baptism and temptation.

Every day, students have voices speaking into their lives. These voices can be obvious, like their peers, teachers, family, etc., or the voices can be subtle, like culture, media, entertainment, etc. Every voice that they hear is speaking a message and that message plays a role in their lives! Often times they don’t even know it! Through this series, we want our students to know what God says and what the culture says about many important topics in their lives!

Over the course of our series, many students have begun to mentally make lists of what is okay and what is not okay in dating, entertainment, social media, and music. However, that mindset embraces a “flee from culture” mentality. I believe that Jesus desires for each of us to engage the culture around us with wisdom and discernment. By doing this we embrace our calling as missionaries to the world around us. I believe that we must recognize what is going on around us, receive the good things from culture, reject the bad things from culture and redeem the things that can be saved. By doing these things we will see the culture used for God’s glory!

Every day, students have voices speaking into their lives. These voices can be obvious, like their peers, teachers, family, etc., or the voices can be subtle, like culture, media, entertainment, etc. Every voice that they hear is speaking a message and that message plays a role in their lives! Often times they don’t even know it! Through this series, we want our students to know what God says and what the culture says about many important topics in their lives!

We are going to continue the dating conversation in our series drawing the line! Last week we learned why dating in middle school is dangerous and came to the conclusion that students should not date in middle school because they are not ready to get married. This week we are going to take a look at fake love and real love. Our culture is selling us a version of fake love but God’s Word describes a very different version of love that is available to us. The goal is for students to understand that they should not settle for fake love now but wait for real love later!

Every day, students have voices speaking into their lives. These voices can be obvious, like their peers, teachers, family, etc., or the voices can be subtle, like culture, media, entertainment, etc. Every voice that they hear is speaking a message and that message plays a role in their lives! Often times they don’t even know it! Through our series, Drawing The Line, we want our students to know what God says and what the culture says about many important topics in their lives!

This week we are going to begin the conversation on dating. In true Shakespearian fashion, we are going to be answering the question... to date or not to date? At the end of the day, the answer that we are going to give them is no, they should not date. Why? We believe that the purpose of dating is to find the characteristics in person you want to marry and spend the rest of your life with. As middle school students, there is absolutely no way that they are ready to be married. The cons far outweigh the pros when it comes to dating in middle school.

Every day students have voices speaking into their lives. These voices can be obvious, like their peers, teachers, family, etc., or the voices can be subtle, like culture, media, entertainment, etc. Every voice that they hear is speaking a message and that message plays a role in their lives! Often times they don’t even know it! Through this series, we want our students to know what God says and what the culture says about many important topics in their lives!

Have you ever gotten a song stuck in your head? Ever love a tune but not think of the words of the song. One of the major ways that culture communicates to us is through the music that we listen to. Music has incredible power and influence over the ways that we think and act. Tonight as we wrap up our Drawing The Line series we are going to talk about that influence that music has over us. If we fill our minds (through music) with the things of this world then we will be influenced to value and act on the things of this world. However, if we are willing to watch what we hear then we will learn to live out a lifestyle that draws a line and lives up to God’s standard for us!

Every day, students have voices speaking into their lives. These voices can be obvious, like their peers, teachers, family, etc., or the voices can be subtle, like culture, media, entertainment, etc. Every voice that they hear is speaking a message and that message plays a role in their lives! Often times they don’t even know it! Through this series, we want our students to know what God says and what the culture says about many important topics in their lives!

Social media has exploded onto the scene and transformed our world! It is impossible to go anywhere without seeing people tweeting, Instagramming, updating their Facebook status or snap chatting someone they know! With the advancement of social media has also come the decline in proper posting. Many of our kids follow the trend of our culture and post whatever they want, whenever they want to. My desire is for our students to understand that what they post matters to God! Social media can be a tool that can bring God glory or it can be a tool to promote the sinful world we live in!

Every day students have voices speaking into their lives. These voices can be obvious, like their peers, teachers, family, etc., or the voices can be subtle, like culture, media, entertainment, etc. Every voice that they hear is speaking a message and that message plays a role in their lives! Often times they don’t even know it! Through this series, we want our students to know what God says and what the culture says about many important topics in their lives!

Our lives are consumed by different forms of entertainment… TV, movies, video games, etc. With all these different forms of entertainment comes a battle for our minds and our time! The whole entertainment industry is based on the desire to control what our kids think about and hopefully model their lives after. Today we are going to look at that battle and see what we can do to win the battle. My desire is to help students discover the message their entertainment is communicating, determine the value it has in their life and then decide whether to engage with it or not.

Every day students have voices speaking into their lives. These voices can be obvious, like their peers, teachers, family, etc., or the voices can be subtle, like culture, media, entertainment, etc. Every voice that they hear is speaking a message and that message plays a role in their lives! Often times they don’t even know it! Through our series, Drawing The Line, we want our students to know what God says and what the culture says about many important topics in their lives!

This week is all about introducing the topic that the world around our students is influencing them every day! Our culture is continually pulling us further and further away from God’s standard that He sets for us in the Bible. Because of this influence, they have the choice daily whether or not they want to follow the world or follow God. We are going to introduce the idea that friendship with the world is hatred toward God (John 4:4).

Every January people make New Year’s resolutions. The thing about New Year’s resolutions is that very few people accomplish their goals. One of the major reasons for that is because they seek to begin things that only focus on what people do. This year at the ROCK, I have decided to focus on what God can do instead of what I can do.

Tonight Rick is sharing five prayers that he has for the ROCK. These prayers are for the students so that 2019 can be their best year yet! These prayers range anywhere from taking their next steps with Jesus to serving other people. The goal of this message is for students to think about what God can do in so that He can make this upcoming year one for the record books!

Come and see the birth of Jesus from Mary and Joseph's perspective so that you can respond just like they did!

We’ve all heard the Christmas story. It’s the greatest story of all time but so many times we miss its importance because we’ve heard it the same way each year. This year, in our series, Do You See What I See, we will discuss the different viewpoints of Christmas from the people who were able to see it firsthand. We’ll see how they viewed the nativity and how they responded to it. By looking at their response to the nativity, we can learn how we should (and should not) respond to it as well!

Tonight we’ll begin by looking at how the shepherds, wise men, and King Herod responded to the birth of Jesus. Each of these characters viewed the nativity differently and therefore responded in different ways. The shepherds responded by sharing the news with everyone. The wise men responded with worshipping Jesus. However, Herod responded with fear that ultimately led to one of the greatest genocides of all time. We will challenge the students to respond like the wise men and the shepherds to the nativity so that they can see Jesus for who he truly is… God with us!

There are few things better than talking with your good friend about what is going on in your life. Good communication is essential for a healthy relationship. It helps us feel better but it also strengthens our friendship too! The same is true when it comes to prayer. Prayer is essential for our relationship with Jesus. Everyone knows that prayer is important, but not everyone does it. So for the next two weeks we are going to discover the power of the link that we have to Jesus through prayer.

Tonight we’re going to explore the connection that we have to Jesus through prayer. Too many times we overcomplicate prayer, but prayer is simply communicating with God. When we pray, Jesus wants us to pray with gut-level honesty. He wants us to talk to him about everything that matters to us. Pray is even more powerful when we pray continually. Finally, when we pray we should spend time listening for his response. Prayer is powerful when we use it to connect to Jesus because it positions us to grow in our relationship with him!

Tonight, Zeek talks to the ROCK about being thankful and living out being thankful all year long!

Check out what we talked about when we had our big Neon Night outreach!

In today's world, it's normal for people to live their lives overwhelmed, unfulfilled and unhappy. We label this as normal. The truth of the matter is that as followers of Jesus, we are called to live a different way. In our series, Weird, we'll learn the simple truth that if we want what normal people have, then we do what normal people do but if we want what few people have, then we need to do what few people do. Since normal isn’t working, that means we need to get weird!

We discovered how God is calling us to be a God kind of weird last week and we are going to see how weird is a better way to live this week! There is always pressure from our world to conform to the norm. We are pressured to talk, act and dress the same. These pressures show us two reasons that people don’t live out a God kind of weird. The first is an inward pull which is our need to please. The second is an outward pull which is our fear of persecution. However, we have to understand that when we’re weird, we can’t please everyone, but we can please God.

In today's world, it's normal for people to live their lives overwhelmed, unfulfilled and unhappy. We label this as normal. The truth of the matter is that as followers of Jesus, we are called to live a different way. In our series, Weird, we'll learn the simple truth that if we want what normal people have, then we do what normal people do but if we want what few people have, then we need to do what few people do. Since normal isn’t working, that means we need to get weird!

We kick off our series tonight by seeing that there are different kinds of weird. There is a bad weird and there is a God weird. We are called to be a God kind of weird. We'll use Matthew 7:13-14 as our theme verse throughout the series which shows us that weird people travel down the narrow path. We want students to see that to be weird, we need to think differently and live differently. God has so much more for us if we’re willing to embrace a weird life. The goal for tonight is that students will wrestle with how God is leading them to be a God kind of weird!